Martin Scorsese's upcoming The Wolf of Wall Street has spent most of the month building up an incredible amount of buzz. Critic's reviews for the the dark, dark comedy, which has a running time just one minute under three hours, are still embargoed, but the film has been ranked as one of the 10 best of the year by the American Film Institute and it picked up both Best Picture and Best Actor nods in the Musical and Comedy categories when the Golden Globe nominations were announced earlier this week. At age 71, Scorsese would appear to be continuing to work at the top of his game... but the sad truth is that his long and amazing career will likely come to an end in the next couple years.
The Academy Award-winning director is currently at the Marrakesh Film Festival serving as a judge, and when asked by reporters about his future career plans, Scorsese revealed that he is now only a few projects away from retirement. "I have the desire to make many films, but as of now, I’m 71 and there’s only a couple more left, if I get to make them," the filmmaker said, according to Gulf News.
Limiting the number of movies Scorsese has left in him is a mix pf declining lack of creative interest and a desire to be able to spend more time with his family. The director noted that as fun as filmmaking looks it is still an incredibly stressful profession that requires a person to assume a lot of responsibility and take on a lot of pressure. A big part of what has kept him going over the last few years, however, has been his long, incredibly successful collaboration with star Leonardo DiCaprio. Including The Wolf of Wall Street, the director and actor have now worked together on five films, the first being 2002's Gangs of New York. Said Scorsese,
"We found that he regenerated my enthusiasm for making films. Mainly because, as you get older, it gets physically difficult and also the business especially — the financial issues. You’re responsible for a lot of money, if you get it. It’s all pressure, but can you do it? His enthusiasm and excitement really kept me going, for another five pictures now."
DiCaprio earned a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Howard Hughes in Scorsese's 2005 biopic The Aviator, and the director took home Best Picture and Best Director in 2007 for The Departed.
Over the last few years Scorsese has continued to talk about the Jesuit priest drama Silence, the long-delayed Frank Sinatra biopic and the mob thriller The Irishman (a.k.a. I Heard You Paint Houses), so if he plans on actually making all of those movies we may still at least have a few more years with his presence in Hollywood. Regardless, the man has left an epic footprint on the world of cinema that will never be forgotten, and the day he steps away from the business will also be the day that I raise up a drink and toast what has been an undeniably genius career.
